When Catalunya and Brasil Meet

Rizzo & Redondo

Friendly and unconventional atmosphere for a superbly researched cuisine, the perfect human and culinary combination in the city of Sao Paolo.

‘I have always been connected to food, and now and then, I go back to my childhood memories.’

HELENA RIZZO was 18 years old when she decided to quit her studies in architecture and her budding modelling career to enter the gates of the restaurant world. Her experience in Brasilian haute cuisine restaurants began in places such as the Rainforest Café, Fasano, and Roanne, owned by Emmanuel Bassoleil – this, blended with her natural curiosity and willingness to experinment, took Helena across the Atlantic, where she worked in Italy at La Torre, in Siena, and Sadler, in Milan to then land in Spain in the fabulous ElCeller de Can Roca in Girona.

Daniel Redondo began his career in Girona, where he was born, at El Celler de Can Roca, now considered the second best restaurant in the world according to Restaurant magazine. He started off with appetisers, then onto cooking meat and fish to pass onto the pastry, building up his practice with minute method.

It's in Catalunya where Daniel and Helena met and gave a double twist to fusion – both in their kitchen and in their lives.

In 2006, the two inaugurated Maní in Sao Paolo as chefs and husband and wife – an unpretentious restaurant, in one of the most sophisticated neighborhoods of the city. Merging each other's influences has allowed the two to invent and let technique and imagination mix, in a double bill of culinary play that results in their unique creations like the "Egg": An eggnog ice cream with coconut foam and crunchy coconuts.

This and other dishes have earned the Maní a number of national and international awards and distinctions: The World's 50 Best Restaurants puts them in a hopeful position with the 51th place which in no doubt they will top very soon.